Court Rules Sending Too Many Emails Is "Hacking" 317
An anonymous reader writes "An appeals court has ruled that having people send a company a lot of emails (in this case, a union protesting a company's business practices) qualifies as hacking under the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act. We're not even talking about a true DDoS action here, but just a bunch of protest emails. Part of the problem is that the company apparently set up their email to only hold a small number of emails in their inbox, and the court seems to think the union should take the blame for stuffing those inboxes."
Does it work the other way 'round? (Score:4, Interesting)
What about a company sending a lot of emails to a person?
Re:Got it wrong in one (Score:4, Interesting)
No, *I* wouldn't send them thousands, because that's simply a harassment. However, if I disagree with a company's actions, I might well decide to be one of thousands of people to send them AN email to let them know what I think. It's perfectly valid to ask individuals to let someone (or something in the case of a corporation) know you don't approve of them.
The intent is to communicate and email is for communication, so there is no abuse happening.
Here's a good thought experiment, I post in a /. story that everyone should email their congressman and let them know what they think. Did I just "hack" Congress? Am I assaulting the U.S. government? Or am I exercising my 1st amendment rights, participating in a demopcratic government, and urging others to do the same?
Beyond that, if their email system is such a creaking rust bucket that it can't handle a thousand emails, it was hardly a "sound" system.
Re:Got it wrong in one (Score:5, Interesting)
Then what of the slashdot effect? What really is *normal*? If we post this, then crater their website, are we guilty, too? I think not. If they can't do the normal thing and empty their mailboxes in a reasonable manner, then the onus is on the company. The judge will have his ruling overturned.